Dank Underwood
Hailing from the state of Nevada, Dank Underwood is the current Senator of District 1, a founding member of the former MEC Board of Directors, former US Attorney General, and veteran of MEC. He was the first independent to hold elected office since former President Gabe Fly, the first independent ever to be elected to a congressional seat, the first elected official to ever hold/be elected to the same office non-consecutively, the fourth longest serving Senator, the eight longest serving congressperson, and holds many other firsts. Early MEC to The ACOA Dank Underwood was a member of the original MEC, along with MEC+. Going under the name "Atton Pearson", Underwood kept a low profile, though some have speculated that he may have been Second President of MEC Gabe Fly, though there's been no confirmation of the theory from any remaining members of the original MEC. Dank Underwood came into the public spotlight in October of 2017 with his founding of the “Anti-Corruption Organization of America” (ACOA), a private agency/Political Action Committee that dealt with scandal. Underwood’s chairmanship of the organization oversaw its inconclusive investigation into the Bullard-Kelly Phone Scandal; that’s more or less it. Underwood stepped down as chairman of the Organization to run for District 1 Senate, the identity of the chairman from that point until the Organization’s dissolution is undisclosed. October 2017 Senate Elections After October’s Senate Primaries ended, Underwood announced that he would be running for the Senate seat of District 1, one of the most competitive races in the nation at the time. He managed to squeeze himself in between the Democrat Secretary of State Braden Hart, and the Republican Chief Justice Maleek Diaz. Underwood’s Poll numbers were almost non-existent on the first day of the campaign, but things started changing radically after that. The second day, Maleek Diaz dropped out of the race; Underwood’s numbers rose to 40%. The day after that? Hart dropped out. Underwood was on a wave of good luck with all his competition gone, that was, until, he realized why Hart dropped out in the first place. Benjamin Asher, the incumbent senator who has gone inactive in the beginning of his term, had returned to run for re-election. Throughout the rest of the race, polls between the two were close, with the only exceptions giving Underwood a slight lead over Asher. When the day of the election came, the majority of early votes had gone to Asher, but as the night went on, the gap between the two candidates narrowed and narrowed, until the two came to a standstill of 49% to 49%. Due to it being the closest race in MEC history (rivaling it to that of Joe Portillo and Caleb Andrew’s House Race), Ethan Kelly called for a run-off. Two days after the initial election, Benjamin Asher conceded the race, leaving Underwood the apparent winner. When run-off day occurred, Underwood gained a historic 91% of the vote, taking the largest vote percentage in MEC history. November 2017 Senate Elections In November, Underwood’s seat was challenged by former Democratic Representative Joel Lopez and newcomer Rouge Thing. In the first round of voting, Underwood won receiving 42% of the vote, compared to his opponent’s 37%, because no one hit over 50%, a run-off was called. In the run-off, Underwood edged out his opponent by 52%. Run for Season 11 Democratic Vice-Presidential Nomination In the beginning of season 11, Benjamin Asher announced that he would be running against Incumbent President Fitzgerald with Underwood as his running mate. The two ran a very attack-centric campaign, focusing on painting Fitzgerald as a do-nothing President. Pundits believe this to be a key factor in why President Fitzgerald lost Re-Election. And though the campaign made an impact on the general election, it did quite the opposite in the Primaries, Democrats felt alienated by Asher and ended up not voting for him in the end. Despite that, the primary delegate map was extremely close due to Underwood’s campaign strategy. The Asher campaign ended up taking states like NY, NJ, PA, MI, OH, GA, TX, and even the President’s home state of CA. As Former Vice President Joshua Huntington said, “It was truly a testament to the Fitzgerald administration, telling them that the people were tired of his antics, and that they wanted change!” Season 11 General Election After his loss in the Democratic Primary, Underwood joined his close friend Jon S. Überfeld’s Presidential campaign. Underwood was an essential part of the campaign’s electoral victories in states Fitzgerald was leading in. Even though Underwood was only in the campaign for less than a week, he made the most speeches out of everyone involved (according to Ethan Kelly), only rivaling with opposing President Fitzgerald. Underwood has been credited for turning the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania from blue to red, even going as far as to make 11 speeches in PA in one day. Attorney General Dank Underwood was nominated by President Jon S. Überfeld to be the Attorney General of MEC. After 4 preliminary hearings and 1 confirmation hearing Underwood was nominated with a unanimous vote. Underwood worked to reform the Justice Department and the Judicial branch by setting up a court system which eventually fell apart due to a lack of interest by the community. Though Underwood did strengthen the Judicial Branch by appointing various Intelligence Agency heads, building and maintaining an intelligence community, establishing a Supreme Court with President Überfeld, and prosecuting many community cases; his impact hasn't seemed to last long, as the Justice Department is still extremely underpowered and all the systems and procedures he set up during his tenure as Justice Department Head see, to have diminished. Return To The Senate (March 2018 Elections) After leaving the Attorney General's office upon the end of the Überfeld Administration, Underwood ran for his old Senate seat, which was being held by former President Ethan Fitzgerald at the time. The race was filled with mudslinging, lawsuits, and fraud votes. So many fraud votes, in fact, that the election had to be recalled and rescheduled, only to have Fitzgerald drop out soon after due to Underwood threatening to bring forward suits of Defamation and Slander towards him. Messy indeed. Season 13 Election Underwood announced his bid for the Democratic Nomination for the Presidency in March of 2018, with his running mate being Adam Daniel. Underwood and his opponent, fellow Senator David Delaney, ran against one another in what turned out to be a very tight race. Underwood won endorsements from many high-profile officials on both sides, painting himself as the progressive choice. In the end, Underwood ended up losing by a single vote at the Democratic National Convention: 19-20. Underwood and his running mate, Adam Daniel, were outraged by the results of the election and cried foul. They believed that Democratic National Committee Chairman Sam Martinez was to blame because he and then-nominee Delaney were both considered to be members of the "Democratic Establishment". Underwood, Daniel, and a group of other progressive Democrats contested the results of the election and claimed it was rigged against Underwood. This eventually sprouted Underwood's Independent bid. A few days after the Democratic National Convention, Underwood and Daniel announced that they'd be running an Independent campaign for the White House, claiming that there were no true progressives in the race. Underwood ended the campaign by endorsing Republican nominee Adam Evans, but asked for his name to be kept on the ballot. Though polling suggested they'd do a lot better, Underwood only ended up winning only 3.57% of the vote Season 14 Election Season 14 started off with Underwood announcing his candidacy with his running mate being his close friend (and fellow "Dank Memer") Oran Mulcahy. Yet again presenting themselves as the "True Progressives". Underwood and Mulcahy were performing extremely well in polls, most having them up by 60% or more against challengers. General Election polls were tighter, but most had Underwood winning. Everything was going splendidly... Until Underwood suddenly went inactive. Inactivity and Disappearance In the middle of his 4th term in the Senate and his extremely successful Presidential campaign, Underwood went inactive. It occurred almost immediately after Underwood was re-elected to the Senate by a large margin mid-April. He wasn't posting on Google+, nor was he responding to anyone on Hangouts. On April 24th, 2018 Oran Mulcahy, Underwood's Running Mate, announced his dropping from the ticket due to Underwood's inactivity. Mulcahy also announced his retirement in the same speech. This meant the end to the Underwood/Mulcahy ticket, as at that point, Mulcahy was the only one campaigning. After 3 weeks of debating and multiple attempts at contacting him, Congress voted unanimously to remove Underwood from the Senate for his inactivity and hold a special election for his seat. The person Underwood unseated and ran with for President the first time around, Benjamin Asher, won and served the remainder of his term. For six months, nobody heard a word from Underwood. Inquiries were made to Ethan Kelly; the owner of MEC and a close friend of his, but Kelly wouldn't answer. Around August of 2018, people noticed that a large number of posts on Underwood's profile had been deleted, recent posts up until January 9th had been deleted, some speculated that it was his doing, other suggested it may have been a Google+ glitch. Underwood stated his abrupt, mysterious 6-month departure was because of "Personal Issues" but he has yet to elaborate on what exactly that means. Some suspect it was because of mental illness, something Underwood has expressed he suffers from; others say he had to work on political campaigns in the real word, referring to Underwood's work as a real-life political activist; some believe it also had something to do with his real-life work in the theatre, as the dates his show opened corresponded to the dates when he first became inactive. Return To MEC On October 21st, 2018, a year after Underwood initially joined MEC, he made a post. The post was a poll with the photograph of IRL President Barack Obama addressing a crowd in the rain as the background. The two opinions on the poll were "La vie est mauvaise" and "La vie est prie", which are French for "Life is bad" and "Life is worse" (Underwood was known for speaking French, and was the first President of Mock Election France.) Underwood then made a post where he quoted Kanye West in French and linked to an instrumental he created. He finally then made a poll where he asked whether or not he should return to the community and whether or not he should run for office. Both polls voted "Yes" overwhelmingly. Underwood's first conversation with an individual in MEC was on October 22nd, 2018 with Adam Evans, a close colleague and longtime friend whom he worked with in Congress and endorsed for President in Seasons 9 and 13. From there, Underwood rejoined the community, Season 18 Election Immediately upon his return to MEC, Underwood joined the Adam Evans campaign. Underwood was made the Nationwide Campaign Chair of the Evans campaign. From there, Underwood took a grassroots approach, flipping voters one by one, a stark contrast to his campaign strategy during the Season 11 Election. Evans ended up winning in a landslide victory against Sam Martinez, the same person Underwood accused of rigging the Season 13 Democratic Primary to give Delaney the nomination over himself. October 2018 Elections While working as Adam Evans' campaign manager, Underwood ran to regain his old Senate seat in District One. Underwood dropped into the race 5 DAYS '''before the election occurred. He ran against former political rival and President Tom Kirkman, former District One Representative Brett Patrick, and Perrenial Candidate Kobe Hunter. Underwood spent the majority of his campaign reaching out to old colleagues and making connections with new members. The speeches and advertisements he released were almost all attacks on Patrick and Hunter. Many were surprised at how Underwood hadn't yet attacked Kirkman, the person some considered Underwood's arch-nemesis. Two days before the election, Tom Kirkman announced he would be dropping out of the race to become a Moderator for MEC and gave Underwood a strong endorsement, leaving some confused and leaving the race mostly between Underwood and Patrick. Underwood began putting out attack ads that criticized Patrick's lack of experience, right-leaning ideology, and former registration to the Republican Party. While digging up dirt on his opponent, Underwood came across evidence that Patrick had voted in an election using alternate accounts to get ahead in a race. Underwood quickly turned over the evidence to the justice department, and upon the eve of the election, Patrick was Indicted by the justice department for "Alt-Voting". which breaks one of the major universal rules of MEC. Underwood ended up winning the election with 48.75% of the vote and was inaugarated on October 31st, 2018. '''Time in the Senate As a Senator, Underwood’s biggest accomplishments were the following: * Authoring a bill that tremendously helped war-scarred Veterans. (On Veterans Day no less) * Denying cabinet confirmation to unfit nominees. * Leading the investigation and delivering 7 indictments to former Secretary of Defense Jasir Best. * Helped prevented the deaths of thousands of teens from suicide by supporting the Teen Suicide Prevention Act. * Strengthened America’s borders. * Bettering education for convicts while Banning Solitary Confinement, Supermax Prisons, and Private State/Federal Prisons. * Supported small, independent, non-corporate owned farmers by granting the financial aid and supplements. * Increased Teacher Pay. * Introduced a bold, new UN Treaty to the Senate. * Sent relief to the South after sewage crisis occurred. * Ensured that sanity tests must be given in order to buy a gun. * Protected democracy by installing Presidential term limits. * Repealed a partisan amendment to the US Code * Co-Authored a bill that ended congressional inactivity * Invested in Education * Cut crime through said investment in education * Fought to limit corporate buybacks * Protected Students' Freedom of Speech in Schools * Ensured Veterans receive the benefits they deserve * Confirmed Adam Evan's Cabinet * Whipped the Senate into shape as PPT * Required states to provide collective bargaining rights to public safety workers * Fought to stop telemarketers from spoofing their Caller ID * Provided education and a step plan for juvenile delinquents leaving detention * Protected US vegetation by protecting the United States Bee Populous * Passed a Record Number of Bills as President Pro Tempore * Authored the "Underwood-Evans Budget of 2018, the first properly-formatted liberal budget with a surplus. * Oversaw President Evans' Renegotiation of NAFTA on the Senate's Behalf * Introduced Legislation into Congress that slashed Gas Taxes for working families over the holidays. * Reauthorized the Assistance to Firefighters Grants program, the Fire Prevention and Safety Grants program, and the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant program * Approved the DentiCare addition to ÜberCare * Passed the Clean Energy Victory Bond Act * Sponsered and Passed legislation that ended litering of plastic bags through a cohesive ban. * Prevented the spread of invasive Asian Carp further into the Mississippi River and into the Great Lakes basins. * Improved Forest Management Category:People Category:Article of the Week